The Heat adjusted quickly, and that's the biggest difference between them tonight and before.

Because the Heat has almost no margin for error, in the absence of home-court advantage, if the big score falls behind 1-3, it is almost a certain death.

So, whenever something goes wrong, Riley will decisively call a timeout to adjust.

The Heat team is full of veterans, and although they lack the sharpness of the youngsters, it also allows them to adjust in time when they encounter problems.

Riley wants to lighten Wade's burden, and the job of the others is to step up and take some of their own responsibility.

Payton came up to find Kevin Martin's misalignment and took advantage of the opponent's lack of defensive weakness to score in the high post.

The Bucks are well aware of Martin's defensive problems and are not worried about it, because they know Martin will come back.

Yu Fei gave the ball to Martin, which meant that he would get back on the field by himself.

It's just that Martin didn't repay that trust with a solid offense.

Payton has spent too much time fighting for the championship in recent years, and everyone has forgotten what a tough defender he used to be, and now even though he is older, he still brings a lot of trouble to Martin with the blessing of the loose scale of the home court.

Martin failed to create a shot and dribbled to the basket before being blocked by Mourning.

Like hitting a wall, Martin seemed to have lost his magic and was limited by the Heat's tough defense.

That's exactly what the Heat have been doing since Game 3.

Maintaining defensive intensity, this is easy to say, but it is difficult to do, mainly in terms of mentality.

The Bucks are good at hitting opponents, and once they hit the perimeter, the cross-era offensive threat can crush all defenses.

The Heat were blown up in two straight games in Milwaukee, but they didn't show any discouragement when they returned home, and finally broke the Bucks' unbeaten playoff streak with Wade in Game 3.

This proves that the Heat are indeed the most literate team in the East.

Now, the excellent defense against Martin also reflects that.

It's just that the Heat's defensive counterattack is not efficient and extremely slow, and for basketball fans, it is a pain to watch such a defensive counterattack, just as uncomfortable as Masahiro Tabuchi in the 2020s trying to play the tough Oto-san in each of his films.

The Heat defense counterattack missed, and Yu Fei grabbed the rebound and quickly passed to Laga Bell to assist the opponent to score on the fast break.

The difference in the efficiency of the two teams' defensive counterattacks is so large that even the fans on the scene can see the difference.

Especially in this round, the defense of the two sides is next to each other, and the Bucks' one-pass and quick down and crisp scoring are like a public execution of the Heat.

However, the Heat won't take this seriously.

They're not a team that relies on defensive counter-attacks to eat, and no one else can play them efficiently except Wade.

One of the best things the Heat did was the constant suppression of Martin's shooting touch.

The ban freed up a tall, thin scorer like Martin, but if you're content with the status quo and don't feel like you need to gain weight, Miami's education is just right.

It was in this game that Martin saw his biggest flaws, and he knew that if he didn't gain weight and strength to make himself more resilient against tough defence and fierce confrontations, he might never be able to play his part in such a suffocating game.

Seeing that Martin was not in good shape, George Carr directly replaced him with Sprewell.

After the change, the Bucks' defensive ability has increased, and although the offensive firepower on the outside has weakened, the continuous output of Yu Fei and Bell is enough to fill the gap.

At the end of the first quarter, the Bucks led the Heat by five points, 27-22.

Karl wanted Yu Fei to rest for a few minutes, and then they saw the Heat bring on O'Neal early in the second quarter.

The rotation scheme of the top horse and the bottom horse is very easy to understand, and the bucks often play this.

But this is the Eastern Conference Finals, the opponent is O'Neal, is it, if Martin is in the state tonight, maybe Carl will let him temporarily replace Yu Fei, but now, looking at the whole team, the only one in the Bucks team who can offset O'Neal's influence is Yu Fei.

However, Carl still had to ask for too much advice before making a decision.

"Let me keep fighting."

Yu Fei said directly.

In this way, Karl's rotation is easy to do.

As long as there are enough shooters around Da Fei, O'Neill can't jump.

But the price is that throughout the first half, Yu Fei may only have a chance to rest in the last few minutes.

Riley sat O'Neal until the second quarter, with the intention of letting his top horse bully the Bucks' bottom horse.

Now Yu Fei is going to spin in a row, and his plan is in vain.

But Riley doesn't think it's a bad thing, at least they keep the Bucks from replacing Yu Fei.

The rest is up to O'Neill himself.

Riley decided to rest Wade, O'Neal was the only core on the court, but he wanted to ask for a lot of balls like the previous two games, play a decent but unwinnable statistic, or sacrifice the ego to achieve the team's big ego.

Yu Fei called O'Neal to score and extended the lead to 7 points.

Moreover, there are words on his lips.

Even if they were far away, Riley knew it wasn't a good word.

Thankfully, though, O'Neill didn't fight back.

This shows that his emotions did not fluctuate.

However, when Riley saw O'Neal running to the front court and going to the low post to ask for the ball, his heart was already half cold.

If O'Neal doesn't understand this — he's no longer the NBA's most influential player — then Miami will be crushed by the NBA's most influential player.

O'Neal took the ball, and the Bucks' defense contracted quickly.

Just when Riley thought it was a big deal, O'Neal passed the ball to Antoine Walker on the outside.

Walker Young hit a three-pointer.

Subsequently, O'Neal performed well in protecting the basket, and after interfering with the Bucks' offense, he grabbed a defensive rebound and passed to Payton to push the fast break.

Back and forth, the Heat recovered 5 points, leaving the gap between the two sides only 2 points.

Yu Fei and Danny Granger had a pick-and-roll.

Granger picked up the ball and made a three-pointer after blocking the man.

"Huh!"

Then, Yu Fei continued to sarcastically mock O'Neal's inability to defend the pick-and-roll.

It's just that the other party doesn't talk back.

Yu Fei couldn't even see any anger on O'Neill's face.

It's as if he's come to his senses, knows his strengths and weaknesses inside out, and fully acknowledges the obvious: he's no longer the best player.

O'Neill became a teamist who was dedicated to serving the team, and Yu Fei's attacks on him began to decrease, and both sides relied on their abilities to change the situation as much as possible.

An interior player like O'Neal, who can do everything except for pick-and-roll and shooting, can bring about a qualitative change on both the offensive and defensive ends if he focuses on serving the team.

One of the most obvious changes for the Heat is that veterans such as Walker, Posey, Bai Qiao, and Payton are starting to benefit from O'Neal's changes.

Five minutes were played in the second quarter, and the Bucks led by just three points.

At this time, Wade returned.

This version of O'Neill on the field is his favorite O'Neal.

As long as O'Neal continues to play like this, he will be able to attack with all his heart and soul like he did in the third game.

Wade slowly took over the offensive burden of the Heat and cleverly used home-court advantage to create consecutive fouls from the Bucks in a short period of time, allowing Raga Bale to carry three fouls before halftime.

The Bucks replaced Bell and replaced Ariza to continue to block Wade.

The pace of the game suddenly became extremely slow, with Yu Fei and Wade dominating the main possession on either side.

Yu Fei can clearly feel that Wade's state is picking up, obviously the opponent was almost defeated by himself in the first quarter, but he magically adjusted back.

Could it be that this year's Heat is really a team of fate?

When Wade caused Kwame Brown's third foul and hit a 2+1 lever, Yu Fei inexplicably had this idea.

Immediately, he despised himself in his heart, if this year's Heat is the team of destiny, then what are the 03 Spurs and 04 Pistons? Fate outcast?

Fate is an interpretation of the present and foreseeable future life state of a person who is partially powerless to change the status quo and can only admit defeat.

Yu Fei responded to Wade's 2+1 with a three-pointer, and the Bucks' lead remained unchanged by 4 points.

No matter how much team O'Neal has and how much Wade has recovered, the Heat just can't turn around the deficit in the second quarter.

Because Yu Fei finally played the first half, scoring 29 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.

58 to 54

The Bucks still lead by four points.

"A lot of people say that if the Bucks can't stop Wade, then Miami will win this game. But you can look at Frye's half-time stats. ”

"If Frye continues to play like this, will Miami be able to handle it?"

Bill Wharton touted Yu Fei like a believer in ESPN's live broadcast room.

His fanaticism for flying raises suspicions that the former NBA 50 superstar has some kind of interest in flying away.

And in half-time interviews, the coaches of both sides had their own views on the game.

Karl put it bluntly: "You know, there's some kind of special ban in Miami where no matter what we do, the referee always gives Wade a free throw. ”

The reporter asked: "For example?" ”

"I farted off the floor." Karl was ready to be fined and offended his opponent, "but the referee awarded Wade two free throws. ”

Riley, on the other side, ignored his opponent's sarcasm and publicly expressed his confidence in tonight's game.

"Shaq tonight is like Karim in 1985." As the head coach of that legendary Lakers team, Riley thinks he's qualified to say that, "and Dwayne was the Magic in 1987. We're confident in the race, we're going to win and the series will be back to the starting line."

Fans usually don't think about things that complicated.

All they know is that this series is really about something that people already know.

If the Bucks lose, hopes for a revival could be dashed, Yu Fei's title as the league's No. 1 could change hands, and Wade would be the best player of the younger generation.

If the Heat lose, then it's just another losing challenger, with the only difference being that the challenger team has a former hegemon like O'Neal on the team. Their defeat could put a final cut over the rivalry between Yu Fei and O'Neill.

So what does Yu Fei think?

He didn't have any ideas.

Having just played the full half, he was a little tired and hungry and suddenly wanted to eat pork chop rice, but this was not possible, the only thing the team could offer was bananas and Gatorade.

Yu Fei had no choice but to eat a banana while pretending that it was a pork chop.

It made him feel like an orangutan.

(End of chapter)